This
small monument commemorates the Hollywood movie stars who helped save Beverly
Hills. Back in 1923, the rapidly-expanding City of Los Angeles attempted
to swallow up the area, just as L.A. had annexed so many other once-autonomous
communities (including Hollywood itself). A handful of movie stars led
the battle to preserve the independence of Beverly Hills, and won.

The
Monument to the Stars, erected in 1959, consists of a bronze-green
spiral of sprocketed "camera film" sitting atop a multi-sided
tower, which is embossed with full-length likenesses of these early stars
- as they appeared in their famous silent movie roles.

Those honored include Douglas
Fairbanks (sporting long hair for his
role in "The Iron Mask"), Mary
Pickford (looking like a waif in "Tess
of the Storm Country"), WillRogers (as his usual relaxed self,
in "Lightnin'"), Conrad Nagel (dressed in a Revolutionary War
outfit from "Glorious Betsy"), Rudolph
Valentino (wearing a bolero hat in his
role from "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse"), Fred
Niblo (the director of the original "Ben-Hur"),
Tom Mix
(in his cowboy duds, from "Hardboiled"), and comic Harold
Lloyd (sporting his trademark glasses,
in "Why Worry?")

A plaque on the sidewalk below
reads:

"In
tribute to those celebrities of the motion picture industry who worked
so valiantly for the preservation of Beverly Hills as a separate municipality."

Another plaque on the site
lists those who helped erect the monument, a list that includes Jack Benny,
Buddy Rogers,
and Louis B. Mayer.

Valentino

Pickford & Fairbanks

Will Rogers

Harold Lloyd

Getting
there:
The monument is located on a traffic island in Beverly Hills, about half
a mile south of Wilshire Boulevard, at the three-way intersection of Beverly
Drive, Olympic Boulevard & Beverwil Drive. It isn't really worth going
out of your way for, but if you happen to be on Beverly Drive, keep an
eye out for it.

This webpage is not associated
with any business described in the article above, and does not constitute
an
endorsement of this or any other business. The photos of celebrities on
this page also do not constitute
endorsements by them of any kind, and are used by the author solely to
illustrate this online article.(Click here
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